Admittedly I am not a big fan of theatre or live entertainment. This, I believe is a combination of my ADHD not allowing me to sit still and the fact that I don’t like sing-talking or having to struggle to understand what’s going on. Therefore Shakespearean works of art were never my go-to.
However, I have appreciated how every summer season Bard on the Beach adopts one play to make it more digestible for modern audiences. This year it was the Merry Wives of Windsor, one of Shakespeare’s lesser known plays, which we were here to see today.
Here, they have changed the setting to a community centre and recast all the players as patrons or employees of said centre. They even brought the timeliness of soccer into the forefront, as Vancouver is currently one of the host cities for the World Cup.
A soccer accident set the scene, two main characters are on the soccer team and even wore jerseys all show, and the finale was set in front of a goalie’s net with balls flying towards their mascot.
The story centres around a man looking to make some money by wooing the wives of two prominent business men. He does this by writing them love letters. The same letters each, but addressed accordingly to their different names. The two women exchange notes and then conspire to get back at him. They do this by luring him to meet with the promise of love, only to embarrass him. I thought this a nice lesson on how to be a “girl’s girl” first.
As the above transpires there is also the side story of a young lady wanting to marry who she loves, for love. However, her mother and father both push her to towards two different suitors, who they want her to marry for either status and money.
And then the sub sub story has two individuals getting revenge on someone who tricked them by way of pot laced cookies. This was clearly a tie into Vancouver’s accepted cannabis culture with vaping on stage and the use of familiar stoner analogies.
Another nod to Vancouver was the actors referencing the Fraser River. I found all of it really pulled the audience in, where you may not understand the over all dialogue, the references surely hit home.
They also had singing and dance numbers referencing popular music to bridge the gaps. They cleverly built this in through the device of having karaoke at the community centre bar. Most memorable was “Levitate” by Dua Lipa that started off as a love song and transitioned into a recap of the first act done in rap.
The overall performance is still done in Old English with the need to read between the lines for context. However show runners have taken the time to add in dialog and quips to better explain and set the scene, and have even cut out that which no longer relates to our modern world.
I found it especially clever and humorous how they incorporated Gen-Z slang by making one of the suitors an influencer and the audience their followers. Not all of the slang like “cap”, “rizz”, and “6 7” landed, but for those who got it, we enjoyed the juxtaposition of having it alongside old timey speech.
In conclusion, you need not understand Latin or appreciate theatre to enjoy this. I enjoyed myself with little experience in both and can definitely recommend this as a great night out.
Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival
1695 Whyte Ave, Vancouver, BC V6J 5C3
(604) 739-0559
bardonthebeach.org
